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A three-judge panel affirmed the Sitzer/Burnett settlements, which means written buyer agreements and the ban on compensation offers in the MLS are now permanent. Any agent still waiting for the old rules to come back is out of runway.

This edition is about winning the buyer conversation those rules now require. We will build a New Construction Incentive Report that earns you the relationship before a builder's sales office claims it, use Wispr Flow to turn every consultation into follow-up without typing a word, and break down what the ruling actually changes for your marketing.

Let's get into it.

Buyers who need help with affordability are increasingly going to find it in new construction, because builders are the sellers most able to discount. They carry standing inventory, they have margin to work with, and they can price an incentive into the deal in a way most individual sellers cannot.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index shows how widespread that has become: 35% of builders cut prices in August, the average reduction was 6%, and 63% used sales incentives. August marked the 16th straight month with the index below 40.

Almost no agent in your market publishes what those incentives actually are. That is the opening.

Step 1: Build the list

Open a spreadsheet with one row per active community in your market. Columns: builder, community, price range, current incentive, expiration, and whether the incentive requires the builder's lender.

Get the data by calling each sales office and asking what they are currently offering. Sales reps will tell you, because you are a potential source of buyers.

Step 2: Translate each incentive into plain language

Buyers hear "incentive" and picture a discount. The three common forms do very different things:

Say which one solves which problem. A buyer short on savings needs the credit. A buyer stretched on payment needs the buydown.

Step 3: Write the honest caveats

This is the part that makes the report credible instead of promotional.

Builder incentives are usually tied to financing through the builder's affiliated lender, so a buydown may come with terms a buyer should compare against an outside quote. A discounted rate on a home priced above a comparable resale is not automatically the better deal.

Put both of those in writing. You will be the only person in the transaction who did.

Step 4: Build the page

Publish it on your site with a question-style title: "What Incentives Are Builders Offering in [City]?"

Use a simple table, one row per community, and a short paragraph under it explaining what to watch for. That structure ranks for the searches buyers actually type and gives AI assistants something clean to quote when someone asks what builders are offering in your market.

Step 5: Protect the registration

Here is the reason this report pays for itself. When a buyer walks into a model home alone and registers with the sales office, you can lose your claim to that client entirely.

So the page has one job beyond ranking: getting a buyer to talk to you first. Say it directly on the page.

"Before you visit a model home, let's talk. Builders record who registers first, and that can affect whether I am able to represent you. One conversation protects your options."

Step 6: Gate the updated version

The published page is the search asset. The monthly updated version is the lead magnet. Offer it as "the current incentive list for [City], updated monthly" in exchange for a name, email, and target area.

That gives you a list of buyers who have told you their price range and their timeline.

Step 7: Refresh it monthly

Incentives change constantly, and a stale report is worse than no report. Put a recurring block on your calendar to call the sales offices and update the rows.

Regional detail worth knowing: NAHB's three-month regional averages put the South at 31 and the West at 27, the two weakest readings. Builders under the most pressure tend to offer the most.

What to measure

Your next step: Call five builder sales offices in your market, ask what they are currently offering, and publish those five rows as version one. A five-row report that exists beats a complete one that never ships.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Sitzer/Burnett settlements, ending a legal fight that has hung over the industry for years. A three-judge panel rejected every argument raised by seven appellants in a 35-page ruling.

The combined settlements total more than $876 million, including NAR's $418 million agreement covering hundreds of MLSs and associations along with thousands of smaller brokerages and their agents. Objectors included attorneys behind related commission lawsuits and law professor Tanya Monestier.

The case went to trial in October 2023, where a jury awarded nearly $1.8 billion to home seller plaintiffs. The parties settled, a district court issued final judgment in January 2025, and the appeals followed.

An appeal to the Supreme Court remains theoretically possible. In practical terms, the practice changes are here to stay: written buyer agreements before touring, and no offers of compensation published in the MLS.

What this means for your business

1. There is no longer a reason to hedge

Some agents have treated buyer agreements as a temporary imposition and marketed accordingly, explaining the paperwork apologetically. That posture no longer has a future. Your buyer-facing marketing should present the agreement as how representation works, not as a rule someone is making you follow.

2. The consultation became your most important marketing asset

You now have to earn a signature before you can show a home. That moves the burden onto everything a buyer sees before that meeting. If your site does not explain what you do, how you are paid, and what the buyer gets, you are asking for commitment from someone with no basis to give it.

3. Compensation is negotiated, so value has to be written down

With nothing published in the MLS, the conversation happens in your own words every time. Agents who have a clear written explanation of their services will win those conversations against agents improvising.

4. Buyers have heard a distorted version

Two years of headlines have produced a lot of confusion, including buyers who believe they now pay their agent out of pocket in all cases, or that agents no longer get paid at all. Being the person who explains it plainly is a real advantage.

Use this when a buyer asks

"You may have seen that the commission rules were challenged in court. The appeals court upheld the settlement, so what is in place now is permanent.

Here is what it means for you. We agree in writing what my services are and how I am compensated before we tour homes, and the compensation is negotiated rather than posted in the MLS. In many transactions the seller still contributes toward it, and we ask.

I would rather you know exactly what you are agreeing to. Want me to walk you through the agreement before we look at anything?"

Your next step: Read your own buyer-facing pages as if you were a buyer who just got asked to sign something before seeing a house. If they do not answer what you do, how you are paid, and what happens if the seller contributes nothing, rewrite them.

We'll see you in the next edition.

Know an agent who still explains buyer agreements apologetically? Forward this their way.

The Real Estate Marketing Update Team @ imFORZA